ATLANTA - When you do it once, you celebrate. When you do it twice, everybody celebrates.
In a sport that has become more transient than at any time in its history, what Florida has done the last two seasons can't really be compared to anything. A repeat has not been
accomplished in this era of players that are here
today, gone
tomorrow.
They all came back to see if it was possible. They proved it about as definitively as a team can prove it last night at the Georgia Dome.
Everything Florida has done for two seasons was on display one final time. It was equal parts breathtaking and mesmerizing. It was fast from end to end. It was passes that hit shooters in position to fire. It was screens that set the shooters free. It was three treys in 92 first-half seconds as the Gators broke the game open. It was defense that eliminated everybody from Ohio State except the amazing Greg Oden (25 points, 12 rebounds, four blocks), who finally got a chance to show everybody what he was all about.
It was one against five for most of the game. Even Oden, who blocked everything in his vicinity on defense and was unstoppable on offense, isn't going to win that game. Oden's performance was as good as any big man's in the championship game since Bill Walton in 1973. But Walton had way more help.
It was Florida 84, Ohio State 75, and a second consecutive
national championship. When Duke did it in 1991-92, it was
doing it with senior Christian
Laettner as the star. When
Kentucky (1996-98) came within an overtime of a threepeat, it had veterans all over the roster. These Gators did it with four
juniors and a senior.
If one player epitomized everything Florida was about, it was Corey Brewer, who was named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four. He blocked Oden. He got a layup caught by Oden on a play that was Bill Russell-like and, unconcerned, nailed a three on the next possession. He ripped the ball from Mike Conley and did a 40-foot fly by ending in a gravity-defying jam. He eliminated Ron Lewis, who entered the game as the tournament's leading scorer with 96 points.
Florida won this game from the three-point line. The Gators were 10-for-18, the Buckeyes 4-for-23. That is 30-12 and way too much. Early, the Gators lived at the foul line. It helped give them a working margin they would never give up.
